Chapter 4

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Chapter 4.

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Mandy siddled up to my side after taking a hot bath, just as i suggested. She hugged me from behind and then lay facing up, a slight frown settling in place of her previous smile.

"What are you going to do now Al?" She asked, really concerned this time.

I sigh and pull my weathered old laptop closer. "I'm searching for jobs online, quick paying jobs." I reply her, busy with the keyboard.

"I can get Hassan to cut my work time so that i can fit another work's shift into my day. It would be hard but i know i can pull it off." I said, determined, and more to myself than her.

She smiled reassuringly and sits up.

"I'm so sorry about today Allie, i know I'm not the best sister in the world, but i love you– you know that right?"

I smile warmly at her. She had her flaws, but i was nothing without her. She reminded me of our mum, fiesty, free, loving.

"Yes mandy, I'm aware. I'm sorry i said all those things to you earlier, I didn't really mean them– i was just... upset." I sigh out, cringing about the past hour.

"It's okay! I understand." She said brightly, happiness gleaming in her brown eyes. She crawled to my side.

"Lets get you a second job now, shall we?! Maybe I'd find something worth keeping for me too." She suggested and we both laugh, knowing how impossible that was.

We perused through the internet for a while, but the available higher paying jobs needed nearly all the hours in a day– Hassan was not going to accept that, even if i proposed clearing my paper work at night.

Mandy sat chewing her lip for a while, and then shot up exclaiming an 'aha'.

"What?" I asked excitedly too, as if i knew what she had in mind.

"I've got an idea, but i don't know if it'll sit well with you. Y'know, you are a goody two shoes." She jokes, clicking her tongue.

I throw a pillow at her, 'out with it!' i demanded, flashing her a grin.

"Okay okay! Hear me out." She surrendered. "There are jobs on dating sites." She let out flatly, gauging my reaction.

I laughed, hard."what do you mean by 'THERE ARE JOBS ON DATING SITES' huh?" I mimic her. "Stop clowning around, what kind of 'JOBS" are found on those type of sites if not the usual sex for money types. I'm not stooping that low." I say to her, falling back unto the bed dejected.

"Well, they aren't EXACTLY dating sites, that's the cover up. It's a link to link for escorts and men who need these escorts– for their.. y'know.. dinner parties.

The catch is that you need to be verified by someone who is verified to be on there. I have a verified account." She explained, drawing out her last sentence carefully.

I blink, "What? Why? Why do you have a verified account on the site?! " I exclaimed, exasperated.

"It's not what you think, really. I only made an account as a back up plan– Incase ..things.. got a little too hard for us. The women in the AD company helped me with it, i promise you that i've never utilized it." She confessed.

It made sense, things have been really tight for us lately.

I was still mulling over the new information when Mandy collected my laptop from me, and hurriedly typed some words in. She waited for a while, chewing her thumb, and then dropped the system in front of me.. "Take a look." She urged.

I raised my head, and squinted at the screen.

* NOTICE!**

MARRIAGE CONTRACT FOR FEMALES AVAILABLE.

THE CANDIDATE MUST BE BELOW TWENTY SEVEN AND ABOVE EIGHTEEN. MUST PROVIDE RECENT HEALTH RESULTS FOR MULTIPLE DONE TESTS(NOT FORGED!) MUST BE AT LEAST 5'11 AND CAN SPEAK FLUENT ENGLISH. AND MUST BE UNAFRAID OF THREATENING CIRCUMSTANCES.

AND MUST ALSO NOT BE MARRIED.

IF YOU ARE INTERVIEWED AND APPROVED, YOUR FIRST COMMISSION RUNS UP TO 500K

*IF YOU TICK ALL OF THE ASSUMED BASICS ABOVE AND ARE INTERESTED– CLICK ON THIS PROFILE FOR MORE INFORMATION.

12:54

It read.

It was the only one put up there, and also very recent. But i still doubted its credibility. I scrolled up to check the site, it had an icon indicator that one could tap and switch back to clicking on people's profiles– its dating part. Was it real afterall?

"Are you sure about this, mandy?" I ask, slightly convinced, but still unsure.

"Yeah, absolutely!" She replied firmly. "I'm just glad that there's one up atleast, they don't always upload these type of jobs. There are more of escort jobs."

I narrowed my eyes, " Are you sure you have not been running around parading as one?" I asked accussingly.

"Me? No! Of course not!" She shrieked insincerely. "I'm too ugly to escort anyone." She snorts and deflects.

I stared at her for a while, wondering if she meant what she said about herself, or if she was just pitching her neck to save her new found career choice.

"I won't judge y'know, you can tell me." I say lowly. She waved it off.

"I'm serious, i just know because those women i worked for at that AD company used to pull that off too. One time– one of them actually accepted an escortship job and was approved – turns out that the guy in search of one was her boss. Crazy right?!" She rambled on.

I shook my head in amusement. "Yeahh.. maybe." I finally say.

"Okayy! I'll leave you to think it through whilst i rest my head, it's banging." She confessed– turning on her side and stretching her legs– reminding me of her blackened eye and injured shoulder.

I sigh softly, returning my gaze to the computer's screen, i tapped my fingers on my thigh repeatedly – contemplating if i wanted to go through with it.

I really needed the money, and who knows! The contract might not even last for that long. I thought to myself.

I was here, now, probably the first person seeing it. This could be my chance, to change my life for good.

500k was a lot of money, and only God knows just how much more i would be getting in total.

All i had to do, was sacrifice a few months of my life to this stranger until they no longer needed me. And i was going to get paid for it.

What could possibly go wrong?

***

Becca cracked her fingers, they were cramped from typing for too long. She stretched her neck too.

Her boss was the most demanding a*s crack she'd ever met. What did he need a proposal contract for anyway? Last she checked, he was comfortable being single and making money– that was his number one priority, he never strayed.

If this was for him, then she feared for him, and herself. She feared for him because she knew that he doesn't know the first thing about being in a relationship – talk more of a long term commitment.

She drew her face close to her laptop's screen and paused– a new message from the information she put up.

She had quickly composed one to start garnering candidates for whoever was getting into it. She didn't want her boss screaming the brown walls of SERAMICS down tomorrow.

She'd just confidently drop on his table, a list.

Her heart fell, for some twisted reason best known to her, she didn't want anyone to notice it– she had assumed that since it was a dating site that was not always active, he'd have had to source for other means.

Her hand hovered over the delete button, if she deleted the message, more were sure to pop up, was she going to delete those ones too?

She thought of tomorrow, and she imagined his face– his forehead creasing in frown lines as he calls out her incompetence, and then fires her.

No, she wasn't having non of that.

So she tapped the accept icon on the far end of the screen, and proceeded to put his first candidate through– do her job.

"What's the name?"

She sent to the candidate.

"Allison .B. " The reply read.

She chuckled as her thoughts ran wild. What if this Allison was that Allie girl from the newly created SERAMICS branch?

No, it couldn't be. It was just coincidental. That Allison didn't look like the kind of person to venture into things like this, besides her surname was peters– not P but B.

So she sent an okay, with an attachment of the papers she needed for the interview to qualify, and typed in the address of a picked restaurant – her boss' favorite restaurant.

She also checked his schedule to be able to pick a time for the interview. She also sent that, and logged out.

She shut her computer before a reply could come in. It was 2AM in the morning and she'd really like to catch some sleep.